| Candy, Hey the work bench looks better than mine. I am not familar with the Cress Kiln (I think that is what the name is). I googled it and found the site below. You may be able to get a manual from them. I apologize in advance if I explain too much, I was a teacher for 23 years. I am looking at the photo and trying to see how you control how fast the temperature goes up. My Skutt had the same type of kiln sitter that I can see on the photo, it also has 3 knobs with low, med. and high on them. Does yours have similar knobs? If so I will send the schedule I use. It sounds like you were doing a bisque firing, if so you are probably ok since most people bisue to cone 04. If you look at the glaze you are using it should say what cone the clay should be bisqued to. 5 1/2 hours would not get you to a cone 6. Had the cone 6 gone down? What cone did you put into the kiln sitter control? If you want to send a close up of all the controls it would help. When I fire to cone 04 it takes 17 to 18 hours. That is with an overnight soak. Soaking is when you have it on the lowest temperature to get out any trapped moisture. There is a great book on using electric kilns. Electric Kiln Ceramics-a guide to Clays and Glazes by Richard Zakin. By the way it looks very good for a used kiln. I do make my own molds. I make them out of clay, bisque and use that as my mold. I do not make 2 piece molds. If you think of a bowl turned up side down, you take a slab and drape it over the bowl for the shape, thus a drape mold. If you use it right side up you put the slab over the top and the clay slumps down into the mold you have a slump mold. What kind of work do you do? Pauline | 
